CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#wpfxaml
Reno
Reno

Reputation: 232

Trouble setting styles for nested elements

I'm having trouble setting up nested styles in WPF. I don't know if I'm doing things the 'right way' - but I'll describe what I'm attempting to do and provide some code.

I'm working with Kinect and am using a ContentControl to represent a Kinect object in my ViewModel. I declare it as such:

<ContentControl Content="{Binding Kinect}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource SkeletonTemplate}" />

I then set up the SkeletonTemplate as such:

<DataTemplate x:Key="SkeletonTemplate">
    <Grid>
        <ContentControl Content="{Binding HandLeft}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource JointTemplate}"/>
        <ContentControl Content="{Binding HandRight}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource JointTemplate}"/>
    </Grid>
</DataTemplate>

Lastly, I set up a JointTemplate as such:

<DataTemplate x:Key="JointTemplate">
    <Ellipse Fill="Red" Margin="0,0,620,460">
        <Ellipse.RenderTransform>
            <TranslateTransform X="{Binding Path=Position.X}" Y="{Binding Path=Position.Y}" />
        </Ellipse.RenderTransform>
    </Ellipse>
</DataTemplate>

Everything is all hunky dory except I'd really like to be able to set a Style at highest level that allows me to style the nested elements. For example, I want to be able to do this:

<ContentControl Content="{Binding Kinect}" Style="{DynamicResource ShrunkBlueSkeleton}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource SkeletonTemplate}" />

And immediately apply a set of rules to the nested elements. Make the ellipses Blue, apply a ValueConverter to the ContentControls in the SkeletonTemplate to scale them to a smaller part of the screen, etc.

I'm having a bitch of a time getting it working, and I'm not sure if I've even set up everything up in the 'right' way to this point.

Certainly I could re-declare a ton of different ContentTemplates that style in all the different ways I need to, but that is much more obviously bad style.

Any pros out there that can lend a hand?

I could paste the Style attempts I've made thus far, but I'm rather convinced they won't help the discussion.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 223

Answers (1)

Uri London
Uri London

Reputation: 10797

The root feature that you are missing is that Style's setters works on Properties and not on Path (a la Binding) - which I believe is what you would like to have.

There are technical reasons for Microsoft did that: Style works on specific styles and not on compound elements. Similar styling frameworks (most notably: CSS) also support "setters" just for one element (although, arguably, the select is much superior).

Upvotes: 1

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